Master of Health Administration (MHA)

The University of Maryland School of Public Health offers a Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree that provides students a rigorous, multi-disciplinary program. The MHA prepares graduates to manage complex health-related organizations including hospitals, long term care facilities, managed care organizations, rehabilitation agencies, public health clinics, state agencies, among others. The MHA program offers students strong, tailored mentorship and individual attention from faculty members who are committed to students’ success.

The Department of Health Services Administration adopts an integrated approach to address current health needs, provide leadership in a rapidly evolving health care industry, and anticipate future health challenges in an expanding global economy. The MHA program is considered to be equivalent to the MPH and is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).

Explore Program Details

Requirements

The MHA program requires 46 credit hours, including a public health core (15 credits). Students take a management module (at least 5 courses), policy/economics module (at least one course), and a data module (at least one course); these MHA cognate courses total 25 credit hours. Students complete an internship (3 credits), and a capstone project (3 credits) or thesis (6 credits); students completing a thesis instead of a capstone project can select to take 22 credits instead of 25 from the cognate area to compensate for the 3 additional thesis credits.

Competencies

Upon graduation, a student with a Master of Health Administration degree (MHA) will be able to:

Identify the main components and issues of the organization, financing, and delivery of health services and public health system in the U.S.

Analyze, synthesize, and manage health information including data collection, statistical and non-statistical analyses, and interpretation of economic, operations, marketing, and other data for decision-making.

* Modules 2, 3, and 4 are cognate areas for the MHA and 25 credits (9 courses) must come from these modules.

Module Description and Course Details

Course

Credits

Module 1: MPH core courses (5 courses)

EPIB 650 Biostatistics I

3

EPIB 610 Foundations of Epidemiology

3

HLSA 601 Intro. to Health Systems

3

HLTH 665 Health Behavior I

3

MIEH 600 Foundations of Environmental Health

3

Total MPH Core

15

Module 2: Management (at least 5 courses)

HLSA 710 Foundations of Healthcare Mgmt

3

BUDT 7580 Operations Management for Health Service Organizations

2

HLSA 720 Health Law and Ethics

3

HLSA 730 Human Resources and Supervision

3

BUDT 758M Healthcare Information Systems

2

HLSA 750 Healthcare Management Information Systems

3

HLSA 740 Strategic Planning and Marketing

3

HLSA 770 Continuous Quality Improvement

3

HLSA 772 Health Care Leadership and Communications

3

HLSA 709 Current Topics in Health Services

1

Elective course from SPH, Business School, other college/school at UMD, UMB or Consortium*

up to 6

Module 3: Policy/economics (at least 1 course)

HLSA 702 Politics and Policy of Health

3

HLSA 711 Health Care Economics and Analysis

3

Elective course from SPH, Business School, School of Public Policy, UMD, UMB or Consortium*

up to 3

Module 4: Data (at least 1 course)

HLSA 775 Public Health Research Methods

3

HLSA 721 Using Demographic Data for Health Policy Analysis

3

HLSA 725 Econometrics in Public Health

3

BUDT 733 Data Mining and Predictive Analytics

2

Elective course from SPH, Business School, other college/school at UMD, UMB or Consortium*

up to 3

Modules 2, 3, & 4=9 courses

Total MHA cognate courses (Modules 2, 3, and 4)

25

Module 5: Internship/Capstone

HLSA 785 Internship

3

HLSA 786 Project or HLSA 799 for Thesis**

3/6

Total Internship/capstone

6

Total 16 courses

Total Credits for MHA

46

*requires advisor approval

** Students completing a thesis (6 credits) instead of a capstone project (3 credits) can select to take 22 credits instead of 25 from the cognate area to compensate for the 3 additional thesis credits.

Internship/Capstone

MHA students work with faculty to select internship sites and capstone projects that support the student’s individual career goals. This important part of the program offers students “hands on” opportunities to apply their coursework in organizational settings of their choice. The broad array of settings may include hospitals, community health agencies, local, state, and federal public health agencies, non-profit organizations, as well as research and health policy organizations throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.